1. I've gotten over my anxiety about having stuff delivered to my office; I ordered 2 cds from InSound the other day, and I just got them this morning. What did I get, you ask? I'll tell you. I finally got my hands on Sufjan Stevens' "Michigan" and Dungen's "Ta Det Lugnt", the latter of which I'm listening to right now and which is fucking AWESOME - it sounds like some lost 60's psych-rock album, but in Sweedish. If you can get your hands on it, I highly suggest taking it home with you.

2. Took yesterday off in order to get Kath to the hospital so that she could get out of a splint and into a cast. Those of you who know Kath personally (and have seen her feet) should know that, at least from a cosmetic standpoint, her foot looks absolutely fantastic. We're still not sure if it'll fix her pains, though, and we won't get an idea about it until she's able to walk on it (in six weeks). That said, it's still pretty remarkable.

3. I love the Yankees. I love October baseball. But I'd really love it if they could just win a game outright one of these days. Bottom-of-the-12th come-from-behind wins are exciting and all, but they're driving me fucking insane.

4. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the Edwards/Cheney debate the other night, although it appears that Edwards made a very favorable impression on the rest of the country. My brother was certainly jazzed up about it, and he was near-morose after the first Kerry/Bush debate, which blew my mind. What did you guys think? Kath and I were so anxious during it (well, I was also switching back to the Yankee game) that we nearly turned it off altogether.

5. I have no 5, I guess. Oh, wait, I do. I'm reading - and enjoying immensely - the final volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. I love long, dense books, and I'm really glad that Neal has decided to forgo the faux Olde English, though he still refuses to lose the "phants'y" bit.

overall it was a pretty even debate. i was annoyed by each of them at times-- in a way more annoyed at Edwards and his evasiveness, when he really really should have seized the opportunity to clarify *how* he and Kerry plan to actually accomplish some of their goals, i.e. Iraq.

but now i find i'm *really* nervous about tomorrow's debate, as i imagine W has been downing raw eggs and doing pull-ups off the top bunk-- you know, generally "working hard" to prepare for it since his less than stellar performance last week. i just don't imagine he'll make that mistake again (and i'm sure Cheney gave him a severe ass whoopin').

Problem is, though, is that the topic of tomorrow's debate is domestic policy. The more time W spends answering questions about Iraq tomorrow is less time he spends defending how terrible his administration has been on the home front, and I expect Kerry to nail his ass, just like Cedric in "Intolerable Cruelty".

i hope you're right. and by the by, turns out i had seen Intolerable Cruelty before-- but it took me almost the whole movie to realize it (i kept waiting for the part i didn't rememeber... which never really came). which is weird, cause i really liked it.

i'm go' NAIL his ass

oh man, that just made me crack a smile--which is for all intents and purposes a LOL at work. i wrote a post about the debate, but overall i thought cheney failed to ridicule the senator and therefore failed to win the debate. if a man of cheney's experience can't do that, edwards can't help but look good. plus, edwards pulled a yankees and really finished strong--cheney let him slip away by not answering domestic policy questions as thoroughly as he could have.

my boyfriend spent the better part of last week reading the new stephenson book. i'm thrilled he finished it, because he's capable of eye contact and conversation again.

the vp debate was so tense. i have no perspective, i'm so biased and anxious about this election. i'm already on pins and needles about friday's debate! i need to find something to do with my hands while it's going on. otehrwise i will chew off my hands.

audio vs. visual

i was at work so i listened to the debate instead of watching it and i think i came away with something different. it seemed more evenly matched to me than to folks who were able to see all of the body language. sure, cheney still sounded evil to me, but in the end i was still wishing i'd watched instead.

my only complaint with edwards was that he did seem to come off overly "prosecutorial", especially when backtracking on questions. one example that comes to mind immediately was the AIDS question-- he could have done much better by just answering the question as opposed to trying to attack cheney, then come back and speak to an issue that he could have "won" on.

anyway... i could go on, but that's my two cents. i know i'll definitely be watching tomorrow's debate. not only will it be better to get the overall picture, it's way too entertaining to make fun of bush and his debating style (if you can call it that).

Re: audio vs. visual

Yeah, Edwards' incessant backtracking started to drive me batshit crazy. He had plenty of opportunities to slam his point home and THEN backtrack, and instead he'd not answer an easy question to clarify an earlier point.

Here's the other thing - Kerry might have misspoke when he said that thing about the "global test", but even I can clarify that statement into something meaningful and resonant, i.e. if you're going to pre-emptively attack a country, you'd better make sure that the rest of the world understands why so that they don't hate you for it - why can't K/E?